Longmont’s Hugo Juarez remembers his mother’s tight grip as she guided her four sons from Mexico City to the United States in 2000. She held them close as the family slowly made its way to a more promising future.
“She was like a lot of immigrants, she just wanted to make a better life for her sons,” Juarez said Thursday. “She just wanted the best for us. She wanted us to work hard and do well.”
The sons moved to Longmont in 2010 and did as their mother wished. Hugo studied at Front Range Community College and works at Sister Carmen Community Center in Lafayette, which provides assistance to families in need.
Juarez also is a member of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that protects young qualified young immigrants from deportation. Juarez, other DACA recipients and their supporters cheered Thursday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Trump administration’s bid to end DACA.
“This is long overdue,” said Donna Lovato, executive director of El Comite, a longtime advocacy group for Longmont Latinos. “What (the Trump administration) was doing just didn’t make any sense.”
The 5-4 decision protects those brought to the United States as children. The 650,000 DACA recipients are also known as “Dreamers.”
Lovato said most “Dreamers” have little or no ties to their former homes south of the U.S. border.
“Most don’t have family there, most don’t remember their friends there,” Lovato said.
All, she said, embraced the freedoms and opportunity in the United States. “For most, this is their home now,” she said. “Why send them back?”
Juarez said he and his brothers have thrived in Longmont since moving here from Phoenix in 2010. They got involved in community activism and business. His oldest brother owns a construction company.
“Instead of running away from our responsibilities we decided to do something about what’s happening now,” Juarez said.
The perils facing immigrants, including “Dreamers,” are far from over, say activists. That includes Hugo’s older brother, Alejandro, who does not fall under DACA protection. “I worry about him,” Hugo said. “We don’t know what his future is.”
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition Communications Director and DACA recipient Cristian Solano-Córdova in a news release stated, “Today’s win reflects the outcome of hard work by directly impacted communities to advocate for themselves and demand change. Today, the Supreme Court took the side of the American people and the majority in Coloradans who overwhelmingly support the DACA program and believe DACA recipients should have a way to earn citizenship - and rejected President Trump’s divisive and hateful agenda. This decision will protect the lives and livelihoods of 14,500 Colorado DACA Recipients and 28,000 of their family members from the President’s cruelty — at least for now.
“It means that for the time being the DACA program can continue. The Justices considered whether the Trump administration followed the proper procedures when trying to end the program and concluded that they did not.”
President Trump could issue an executive order abolishing DACA or use other measures to end the program, said Sonia Marquez, a community mentor with Northern Colorado Immigrants United.
“We are hitting a bit of a pause now to celebrate,” Marquez said. “But we can’t rest. We have to move forward and continue to fight.”
Laura Soto, operations manager for the Longmont-based Philanthropiece Foundation, said all immigrants face uncertainty. Soto’s family held her above their heads as they crossed the Rio Grande in 1982. She was only 6 months old.
Soto now has a 20-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.
“Now I have to look out for them as well,” Soto said. “My livelihood, my home, my family can be taken away from me at any time. We have to keep fighting. Keep working.”
